Exclusive:MTNL hikes Prepaid tariffs, bids adieu to Lifetime Validity

State run telecom PSU MTNL, which is struggling to keep its Navratna tag, has been continuously slashing benefits from its existing products and hiking tariffs to keep its burgeoning losses under control. Few days ago MTNL Mumbai had increased its broadband tariffs, decreased pulse rates in landline plans, slashed free data in 3G packs , converted all truly unlimited 3G prepaid plans to limited plans by putting a cap and now it has decided to hike tariffs in Prepaid 2G segment . MTNL, in an audacious move, has decided to bid adieu to a very popular feature ‘Lifetime validity ‘ from all its existing prepaid connections except one. MTNL had earlier reduced validity of its lifetime voucher of Rs 47 to 365 days and now this is being extended to new prepaid SIM connections. It has taken off life time validity feature from FRC 91, FRC 145, FRC 301, FRC 62 and FRC 53 and reduced it to 365 days. So now lifetime validity feature will not be available for new customers of MTNL (except for SIM 80 which is per minute plan) as there is neither any SIM or special tariff voucher ( STV) that can offer life time validity.

Validity

Existing

Revised

SIM 10 +FRC 91

Lifetime

365 days

SIM 10 + FRC 145

Lifetime

365 days

SIM 10 + FRC 301

Lifetime

365 days

SIM 10 + FRC 62

Lifetime

365 days

SIM 10 + FRC 53

Lifetime

365 days

SIM 80 – FRC 29

Lifetime

Lifetime

But that’s not all as MTNL has hiked tariffs in most of its prepaid products and overhauled its prepaid portfolio in a major way reflecting the desperation to increase revenues. New prepaid SIM connections and Plan Vouchers have been revised with reduced benefits and higher tariffs for new customers. Get all the exclusive details here.

MTNL has increased the call rates for On-net calls from 1p/2 sec to 1p/sec in FRC 91, FRC 145, FRC 301 & STV 45 which are Per Second Prepaid Plans. SMS charges under these plans have also been revised as SMS charges for other local networks have been hiked from 25p to 50p per SMS.

In FRC 62 charges for on-net calls have been enhanced from 20p/min to 30p/min

Existing (Voice & video

Revised (Voice & video)

Local Calls

MTNL Network

20p/min

30p/min

Other Networks

50p//min

50p//min

STD

75p/min

75p/min

In FRC 84 call charges for My Group have been increased from 2p/min to 4p/min. STD charges hiked from 50p/min to 75p/min. All freebies which were available for 3 months will now be available for 30 days only.

Earlier

Revised

Call charges within group

2p/min

4p/min

Freebies

Particulars

Existing

Revised

FREE SMS

250 SMS (Local + National)

per month for 3 months

30 days

FREE Data

100 MB

per month for 3 months

30 days

FREE Video

25 min on Local MTNL

per month for 3 months

30 days

Tariff validity of Plan Voucher 46 has been reduced from 180 days to 60 days.